Posted on 8/30/2010 10:45:11 AMPhotos Here
After an evening of enlivening conversation involving praying manti and gross wagers, the AJ hardcore went home, took some Tums, and tried to sleep it off. Merry was not amused but got over it. Thx to Scott for the grille work. Thx to Jared for some interesting new downloads on my Android.
I met Alex for a few go-rounds at Mitre early in the morning. Good fun. Alex flew his Extra quite fast, and I went out of my way to fly the Ultra Stick as slowly as possible. Alex mentioned that he and Red had flown for a while before I arrived.
Reconvened at Mitre around two-ish to a growing party. You know I'm not good with names so don't be offended if you're not mentioned but the whole gang was there... still no Matt or Christian, or Tom S. or Derek, but Goose
(Alex) is back and Fettah and Glider Dave and The Other Dave whose young son flies a Champ like a Champ. Amanda gave up her south shore paradise to join us, and enticed us with pizza. Yum.
And of course the hard core. Sue and Skylar did several runs to the mini mart for the benefit of thirsty flyers. Did I mention it was hot? Merry showed up with more refreshments. Frank rigged tarps for shade. Teams of Eskimos hauled in dry ice.
Scott's big Spacewalker took a hit. It will fly again. Brian drew diagrams involving air flow, thrust vectors, and held forth on topics in aeronautical theory, till Scott fired up his T-28, shoved a radio in Brian's hands and told him to go fly. Chip hovered a Habu, maidened a new
Extra 260, and Fettah flew a nice foamie electric glider. On Saturday,
Artie flew the Ur-Easystar and Sam sent the Mustang on its rounds (what, no Diamante? Wahhh!) I flew three models that had been sidelined for repairs... for way too long. That little red Switchback rules. Brothers Pfaff provided entertainment as usual with fast and unusual aircraft. Their kids had fun catching dinner for Siraj's new pet. Danny's a veritable gusher of creativity. Frank pulled a spectacular nose-in with his EasyStar. Don's flying like a pro, and Siraj has a promising future in zoology. Dog is building a new Pitts, which I imagine will give Scott a woody, which might be the point, who knows.
New faces and names I need to learn. A fellow (Bob?) who patiently flew his new home-brew twin-boom foamie again and again until by the end of the day, it was moving quite nicely. (IMO, needs more JUICE.) Another fella flying T-28, Wing Dragon, and... ?
All for now. Goose was very active with his Canon D40 the whole day, and I'm expecting a new photo gallery on the AJ website soon. Speaking of which (ahem, Chip!) I'd love to see a few of those Hobie pix from earlier this summer... apparently graced by Fettah in Speedos. Oh and if anyone's looking for a hot deal on a sharp looking, fast, 23 year old Hobie Cat, drop me a line.
/rafe
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CommentsPosted on 6/28/2010 5:13:21 PMheat. hanscom. waiting out the rain. good flyin', lots of maidens and re-maidens. excellent parachute drops. just enough wind to take a little edge off the heat.
Frank has a cool new jet, flew it very well. My AT-6 flew great, as did my big 'Mosa, back in one piece after its encounter with Mitre trees. Scott flew the Albatross (amazing scale detail) and a cool new orange foamie bipe from Hobby Lobby.
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Posted on 4/12/2010 11:27:36 AMAmazingly, there was little wind before early on, but only Dog was smart enough to capitalize on that. By the time I showed up the wind was already kicking in, even worse than the previous day. Frank showed up and installed the weather station. Wind was steady in the high teens for most of the day, gusting to something like 23. Don, Chip, Frank, Dog, Tyler, Gabby, and I entertained ourselves in the morning, tossing around a football, and had lunch at Papa Ginos in Burlington. When we returned Sam was there.
Funny how I mostly remember the casualties... let's see... Tyler's Playmate flew away, to the Bermuda Triangle over Dunkin Donuts. Dog's BAE Hawk (jet) flew awesomely, but went into a spin and crashed on landing. Dog and Chip did an awesome show flying the two BAE jets together. Chip's EasyStar left a few gouges in the side of Dog's Cub -- a weird midair event where both planes landed OK. Artie did an amazing inverted landing in his Electro-Stick after the battery fell out in mid-air. The battery was recovered and the plane took very minor damage. We also saw Artie flying the infamous beater Twinstar for the first time. Chip broke a wing on his EasyStar and had it fixed about five minutes later. On his second flight of his new Predator, the wing spar gave up the ghost... Chip managed to land the plane with minimal damage. Very cool looking plane. Looks mean and insidious. The sort of plane you'd rather not meet in a dark alley.
Dave caught some air with one of his big gliders. Chip maidened the Predator. I buzzed the crowd with the "envelope" plane.
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CommentsPosted on 4/12/2010 11:27:03 AMWindy. A few of us flew indoors at the tennis bubble at Hanscom, which was very lightly attended. Chip, Steve, Zack, Steve, and Paul D. from BRCF. Chip practiced touch-and-goes off the walls with his mini Piper Cub.
Later, around five, we reconvened at Mitre, just as the lacrosse teams were packing up. The usual AJ suspects The high (low?) point of the evening was Scott's blue Corsair flying away to parts unknown. A search party was unable to locate the wayward aircraft.
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CommentsPosted on 3/19/2010 11:05:30 PMArtie, Don and I had a super afternoon today flying over the field behind the Harvard Stadium. This field is right next to the Soldier Field Road. I arrived first at around 5:15pm. There wasn't anyone on the field except a guy flying his Blade 400 helicopter. His name was Dan and he seemed like a nice guy. I introduced myself and told him about AeroJunkies. We will see if he decides joining our group. Anyway, he was on his last battery, and he left shortly afterwards.
I quickly pulled out my trusty old ParkZone T-28 Trojan and took off. It was a tad breeze, but nothing an AJ cannot handle. The sun on the other hand was annoying, since the wind was almost due west. While I was halfway through my battery Artie and Donovan shoed up, and a couple minutes later Artie's Mini Ultra Stick and Don's ParkZone Super Cub joined the party. After I landed the Trojan, I decided to make some noise, so I prepped my ElectriFly Synapse EDF jet and took off. After about six minutes of being on edge with shaky legs and making many low passes, I made a fast but successful (read: no damage!) landing. Synapse loves to fly fast (of course according to my standards, not Billy's) but It doesn't want to come down when I cut off power and keeps gliding merrily. I need to get used to this little shit.
After two flights on Synapse, I had my adrenaline fix. Meanwhile, Artie and Don have switched to their ElectriFly ElectroStick and Multiplex Easy Star, respectively. I joined them with my Trojan. We had easy relaxing fligts in the next twenty minutes while the sun was setting, creating a beautiful panorama. Artie even caught some thermals with his 'Stick. We also had some spectators: two teenage kids stopped by on their bicycles. They seemed to be knowledgeable so I asked "What do you guys fly?" I expected them to say "Air Hogs" or "Mini Super Cub", but one of them answered "I have a Sukhoi Su-47 jet and my friend has a SR-71 Blackbird. We got them from Banana Hobby." My jaw hit my feet; I mean these are middle school kids. So I asked "What did you fly before?". The other one answered "We started with Air Hogs jets and then moved on to Su-47 and SR-71." Now I am thinking that these little guys are pulling our legs. So I ask "Do you have simulators" to test if they are bullshitting or not, and they say "yeah, we use the ones that came with our jets". They were referrring to FMS. Anyway, I wrote down our website on a piece of paper and invited them to Mitre. They looked very excited. I am not sure if they will be able to convince their parents to drive all the way to Mitre, but if they do it will be fun to watch them fly their EDF jets.
My fifth and final flight was with my "elite" plane: Great Planes Edge 540. I took off from the grass, and it left its tail skid on the ground. Now I am thinking "Shit, it is going to land on its big rudder, I hope it won't break." Well, it did not. I was able to land it softly enough. I just need to glue it back before tomorrow. It was 6:45pm when Don and I were leaving. We promised to meet tomorrow at Mitre. Artie said "one last flight" and took off with his 'Stick into the sunset while I pulled off... thinking "What a wonderful way to and a busy work week!"
Hope to see you all tomorrow at Mitre. With some luck there won't be too many "other activities" occupying "our field".
Fettah
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CommentsPosted on 2/22/2010 12:57:52 PMAerojunkies ruled the day. Most of the nitro flyboys were just hanging around chatting. Fettah was there when I arrived but hadn't flown. I took the MiniMag up for a bit. Scott & kin showed up. Billy, Derek and kids showed, w/o planes. Scott flew the Piper nicely until the motor sent a smoke signal which apparently meant, "I'm dying." Landed it nicely w/o power. Then took his Waco up. Chip flew EasyStar, and finally Fettah flew his Decathlon. Some guy we'd never met showed up with a 4-ch. Wing Dragon, flew it very nicely.
Bunch of us reconvened at Mitre for a bit; Scott got another couple of flights on the Piper Cub, Rick and Brenda showed up. After which Chip and I headed to the Cambridge Armory... Fettah and Bora were there, and Steve arrived later.
There was an amazing plane there... a four-channel acrobat, 100% original design... 19 grams total weight.
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CommentsPosted on 1/11/2010 9:14:32 AMWell guys it was a great day for me and my slow planes. Start with my mini cub doing 42 mph. Yeeharr! My rocket cub doing 70 mph with seagull wings flapping funny as hell. Chip did a video of it flexing about 6 inches up and down...pissaa...The vector jet fly n 70 plus mph...fun fun fun... We put smoke on Scott' s Waco...The fuse would not light. We took a torch to it, and flew it. It was cool the first time. The second time was a little crazy! Scotts flying, doing loops like Tyler, haven a blast. We were watching from the heated tent... I start yelling “Scott the friggin plane wing is on fire! Land it, land it now!” So Scott did not waste a second. Here comes the friggin plane, right down, doing 30 mph at my head. I hit the snow, do 2 snow angels, get up and pray, and ran to put the smoke bomb out. It would not stop! Scott held it on fire in his hand and unscrewed it. The Waco is in good shape but there is 2 little holes in it, and his white Waco is now red and white… Chip and Tyler were having a blast pooping there pants! Ty was fly n inverted almost make n foam chips on the buddy box. Rafe shocked the crap out of me! He was fly n like me with his Polaris! Was rippin up the sky...You go Rafe! Get some balls and buy a jet now, he he. Don the crasher, as Tyler would say. Did a great job doing lessons on how to land in a tree with Tyler following. People were stopping by thinking that Barnum and Bailey were doing a show. They saw the huge white tent with clowns standing around...Fettah, Artie, Frank, Amanda, all flew well... Artie just wanted us to see parts fall off his plane, and see if we could find them in 7000,000 sq ft. of snow. Scott was fly n like Rafe today. Counted 3 times he almost took my friggin head off.
What a day guys! I loved it,
The Dog
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CommentsPosted on 12/13/2009 12:29:58 AMWhat a day it was! I thought I had seen AeroJunkies partake in some extreme flying when they took on gale force winds with their minature aircraft. It is my honor to report that today a new standard was set. Not only was it extremely windy but it was bone numbing cold at the AeroJunkies home airfield, Mitre International. The plows were apparently out of service as all runways were snow covered, topped with a thin and crusty glaze of ice.
I had not planned on visiting Mitre today due to the extreme conditions. Hanscom Field AWOS reporting winds at 300 degrees at 12 Knots Gusting 22. Temperature -2 degrees C. This translates to a wind chill of minus 8 degrees C or 17 degrees F. Scott "Maverick" had alerted me the previous night that he was planning an initial flight test on his new Waco. The "doubting Thomases" amongst us were skeptical that this would actually take place given the wind forecast for Saturday.
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CommentsPosted on 12/10/2009 10:47:33 AMI wonder if I'm approaching RC burnout? I had a
lot of trouble deciding on my next plane. Some of the candidates...
I wasn't sure I was up for a big build project. Takeoff/landing on snow would be useful, at least for the next few months.... but one can always bolt on a pair of DuBro skis and fly almost any plane that way. (The boys at the BRCF club do that with their big nitro trainers.)
Size matters, I guess. I've been wanting a plane around 50" wingspan. Something with enough size and heft that it won't be grounded in a 12 mph breeze. My biggest plane so far is that baby-blue 'Blitz' with a 44 inch wingspan (and about 14 oz. all-up weight.)
In the end, I decided on "none of the above." An outfit called Radical RC sells all sorts of balsa kits. One of their newest is called the Intern 66. Yep, that 66 is the wingspan, in inches, so this plane will have a wingspan exceeding my height. The very nice part of this plane is that it's very light for its size, so I'm expecting an easy, docile flyer. All-up weight is given as 3 to 4 pounds. I figure it should fly nicely on 600 watts or so. (As opposed to that 3400 watt motor on Fettah's 72 inch trainer.)
Anyway, here's the pic from the website....
Apparently it can be built with "your choice" of wing dihedral. The model in the foreground has 5
o dihedral; the one behind it has 1
o dihedral.
The kit should arrive within a week or so... just in time for a "forced vacation" between Xmas and New Years. I don't intend to rush the build -- I'll be happy if the plane is ready to fly by the end of January or so.
I'll document the build in this blog. Stay tuned.
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CommentsPosted on 12/6/2009 12:19:21 AMIt Flies!
A continuation of the
build post.
I must say, this is a REALLY nice and easy flying jet. I forgot to have someone radar gun it, but I *think* it's around 100mph. My thrust tube exit diameter is about 1/2inch smaller than the diameter of the hole in the back of the jet and measured at 81mm coming from the 96mm Himaxx fan. Not sure where that falls in terms of thrust to speed, but it felt like it had more thrust than actual top speed. Take-offs into the wind were pretty uneventful, just wait for it to have enough speed and pull up gently. On my
third flight I hit an undulation in the grass and it lifted prematurely (actually BOUNCED into the sky about 6 feet). I lowered the nose and just kept the throttle on it and it picked up enough speed without falling back to the ground.
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CommentsPosted on 12/5/2009 4:10:34 PMWhile Jets and Rockets have been around in full scale for many decades now, in the RC park flyer realm, it's still the dawn of the jet and rocket age. We're still feeling the excitement of jet and rocket propulsion that the world felt decades ago. Hence there is a mystique surrounding the aircraft and those pioneering RC aviators who dare to sit at the helm. Within AeroJunkies, Sebastien, Chip, Steve and Dog have taken this next "small step for man" and others can't help but be in awe of watching their jets streak across the skies.
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CommentsPosted on 11/29/2009 1:11:40 AM(more pictures and video to come)
I recently purchased the EasyTiger EDF Predator UCAV from NitroPlanes.com. This was my first and probably last purchase from NitroPlanes. The plane itself, for the money, is a great value.
I bought it for $119 and it's currently on sale for $88. For a 101mm EDF, that's a GREAT price, but they definitely cut corners to get the price low. Mainly they cut corners on the instructions and fit and finish. Typically, for an ARF, the instructions span across 30 or so pages, even for easy to put together planes - this instruction booklet (read: pamphlet) weighed in at an anorexic 6 pages...with photos...that didn't match this model.
Luckly, pioneers had documented their builds on RCGroups and RCUniverse which proved to be very helpfuly. Everything from which electronics fit best, to correcting the center of gravity on the plane. The CG, for reference, is at 7.25 inches from the leading edge and not 8.5 inches as specified in the instructions.
Fit and finish left a lot to be desired as well.
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Posted on 11/26/2009 4:43:49 PMIt's Thanksgiving morning and the wind is dead calm. I had spent a couple of hours last night putting some last minute tweaks on my latest purchase, a Parkzone Typhoon 3D. It is the predecessor to the Typhoon II 3D that Amanda and Steve have been flying. A guy down in Rhode Island had it sitting in a box for a couple of years but he remains a die-hard glow fuel guy so he offered to sell it to me brand new for $50. It's an RTF, so it came with a radio and a NiMH battery pack which I promptly swapped out for a 2.4GHz receiver and a LiPo. pack. I reprogrammed the ESC for the 3S LiPo that I use.
I loaded up the car and headed for Mitre thinking that some experienced aerojunkie would surely be present to flight test the Typhoon for me. As a newbie, I wasn't sure what to expect out of the 3D label on the plane along with the big control surfaces and large throws. As I got closer to Mitre, it was clear that the fog might get in the way. I made the customary call to Hanscom to get the latest weather. Hanscom weather at the time was reporting, winds calm, 1/4 mile visibility and 100 feet vertical visibility, below CAT 1 ILS minimums for full scale (200' ceilings, 1/4 mile visibility). I now had doubts as to whether anyone would be at Mitre, aerojunkie or otherwise. I figured that this would be a good opportunity to grab some breakfast and let the sun try to burn off some of the fog.
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Posted on 11/20/2009 11:08:38 PMFriday 11/20/09. I left Rhode Island late morning to catch up with Scott at Mitre. Weather looked promising, rain clouds giving way to clear skies and wind calming down to around 5 Knots. However when I arrived at Mitre, just after 1pm, the winds were fierce. Hanscom AWOS was reporting winds 310 degrees 15 Knots gusting to 20 Knots. I immediately scrapped any plans I had of flying. Not surprisingly, Scott and Billy were readying their airplanes for immediate departure.
Billy was getting ready for yet another launch of the rocket powered Super Cub. I had been waiting to see this after hearing about it on the email threads. The first 3 attempts yielded futile resuts in igniting the rocket. After swapping out the rocket, igniters and igniter batteries, the 4th ignition was a success. After a normal hand launch and a few setup runs to give the videographers a chance to set up their equipment (Scott on Camera 1 and Alex on Camera 2), he lit the candle on a downwind run. I'm embarassed to say that I wasn't able to capture anything of quality on video since the airplane accelerated out of my frame, leaving a plume of smoke in its wake. Nevertheless I caught it with one eye and both ears and it was spectacular. He finished it off with a hover landing into the strong wind. I had to bestow upon him the congratulatory message usually reserved for Scott "Jolly Good Show Old Chap". I also bestowed upon him the nickname Billy "Hot Dog" Pfaff . I expect to see that painted next to the canopy on all his airplanes now.
The wind showed no signs of abating and in fact was picking up. Updated wind reports, indicated winds at 16 Knots gusting to 28 Knots and Scott and Billy were preparing for follow on flights, incredible! This would keep a lot of full scale general aviation pilots grounded. But it was just another day at the office for Billy and Scott. Scott's Waco had apparently suffered some ground damage due to the wind picking it up and blowing it over. Well, fortunately Scott keeps a 55 gallon drum of foam safe CA on hand for fleet maintenance and the Waco was repaired in the blink of an eye. He somehow lost the transmitter for the airplane, there's an APB out on it, if anyone comes across a lonesome TX, give Scott a call.
Scott got his Boeing Stearman ready, adding more and more lead weight in the nose to bring it into reasonable balance. After takeoff, the plane was all over the sky and very unstable in pitch, indicating a still too far aft CG. It must have been a handful to fly, especially in that wind, and yet Scott exhibited his calm, cool demeanor, chatting with me about some guy Howard that builds his airplanes as I was reaching over to his controls and giving him a "heapin helpin" of nose down trim. He even threw in a dose of aerobatics with the airplane severely out of balance. I reminded him that he might want to bring it down and add more nose weight. He decided to humor me and set up a landing pattern. He was looking good until short final when the wind grabbed it and turned it downwind. Despite the now strong tailwind, Scott managed to get it down with minimal damage. Back to that 55 gallon drum of CA. I thought that Scott deserved a cool nickname like Billy for his display of skill. Thinking of the movie Top Gun and Scott's approach to flying, i.e. "fearless and not a lot of respect for rules", I thought that the role played by Tom Cruise would be fitting. Scott is now "Maverick", with his ego writing checks that his body can't cash.
Back to Hot Dog's turn. He took the formosa up which cut through the wind well. It also Knife Edges beautifully. He put on some low inverted passes at my request. On a subsequent run, on what was a medium altitude inverted pass, he pulled back on the elevator to recover upright in a manner similar to the Split-S. He almost completed it but the wind must have affected the radius of the maneuver and it hit the ground hard and exploded into a sea of foam. All the CA in Scott's drum would not fix this one. Billy mentioned that at least the Mosas were cheap. The radio, motor and other electronics will be transplanted into the Mosa MK II. His day wasn't done, he went on to put on another rocket show with the Super Cub.
Scott broke out an Old Timer design that he'd affectionately named "Ole Sue" and flew it. I didn't give it a chance in the wind but Scott proved me wrong and uncharacteristically brought it down in one piece. No CA needed. And what a honking motor it had on it for an old timer.
At twilight, the wind finally showed signs of dying down and Maverick dug out his piece de resistance of the day, I think it was called "mini Tumbleweed". First test flight on this magnificent looking pattern plane equipped with flaps. After a quick check and radio adjustments, it took off without a hitch and tracked as straight as an arrow through the air. After Scott's standard EFNHA maneuvers, it was time to experiment with the flaps. He actually landed it with the flaps extended culminating in a greaser of a touch down. What a way to end a challenging day in the wind. Truly I was amazed at how much wind these guys were taking on. My mini Ultra Stick never left the back seat all day and my Ultra Micro Sukhoi crawled under the seat for fear that I might try to fly her. Bravo Hot Dog and Maverick.
Alex
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CommentsPosted on 11/16/2009 11:06:34 AMThere was an interesting chance encounter at RC Buyers Warehouse on Saturday. I was there for some parts; Alex showed up to buy a flight sim upgrade. Chip showed up to buy a jet ARF to replace the one that got smushed in his trunk. And then Scott and Sue; not sure what they were in for. (But probably in deep, knowing the two of 'em.) Chip and Alex and Alex's GF Katy had Chinese takeout dinner over at Chateaux Bustin. Scott and Sue had other plans. The ladies talked about Pilates and ballet. The boys talked shop and took turns on the sim.
Saturday had been a washout. We were all keen to fly. Sunday dawned with rain and mist, but with promise of better weather.
I showed up at BRCF field around 11 AM, and it was a pretty interesting scene. Check out the gallery on the BRCF site -- cool photos and vids. But no Aerojunkies there. I called Fettah, who sounded down at not being able to fly. So after some chatting and a few short flights, I began my retreat towards Mitre.
Met Artie out at Blanchard road, heading in. He was about to fly some old balsa plane with an .049 engine. Gawd, I haven't heard one of those things running since I was a kid. Artie said he'd be over to Mitre afterwards. I hit the road.
At Mitre I met Donovan and his son Siraj. Don had a new SkyArtec Cessna with cranky elevator and rudder linkages. I wasn't able the help enough to get him airborne. I suggested some hacking, but Don wasn't sure he wanted to keep the plane... so no hacking. Later in the day Artie got the plane flying by simply ignoring the rudder controls. Don also flew that orange Firebird for at least a few seconds... I recall seeing it heading toward that line of trees along Rte. 62. He got it back, though.
When I first arrived at Mitre, weather had taken a turn for the worse. There was a very light rain. But we stuck it out and sure enough, by early afternoon the weather was gorgeous.
The remainder of the day went by in a blur. Pretty much all or most of the usual Aerojunky suspects showed up at one point or another. Even Scott (and Sue and Skylar) showed up in spite of a gnarly encounter with a rogue prop blade the night before.
Artie was there flying his sticks, Alex with his MiniUltraStick, Derek with MiniMag and a beautiful new Pluma biplane; Steve Eichel with Typhoon and Diabo, Billy (Dog) with a new nuclear-powered Formosa. Chip was showing off more electronic wizardry: first-person video. But I missed that demo. Fettah showed up with his son and a few toys including the big ThunderTiger trainer. Amanda came by for a while and flew her Typhoon.
By 4:30 or so it was too dark to fly. A fog started rolling in. We stood around and chatted until total darkness set in. The place was still alive and kicking when I headed home at five.
I flew five different planes and smushed one of 'em. (The MiniMag. No biggie, it will be fixed.) I flew so much that I actually skipped today's AM flying session -- and that's saying something. Besides, I needed to stop at Home Despot (for glue) on the way to work.
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CommentsPosted on 11/11/2009 11:38:27 PMArtie, Donovan and I met at the Grove St Park for a couple of short flights today at around 3:30pm. Artie had two good flights with his Shaft. He even caught some strong updrafts over the hot asphalt that was being paved on Grove St right by the park. I had a relaxing 16-minute flight with my 3-cannel ParkZone Super Decathlon BL, which I was able to spot-land on the basketball court. I also flew my Mini Spitfire from Phase 3 for 3-4 minutes (the small battery looses its juice after that). We helped (or at least tried to) Donovan to get this orange 2-channel pusher-prop plane up in the air. After Sunday's unsuccessful attempts, he had installed a new wing set and increased the area of the rudder surfaces. The plane flew fine for a couple seconds after a light hand-launch, but veered right sharply after it picked up some speed. I started to believe that there is something crooked on that plane that starts interfering with its straight flight at higher speeds. Anyway, Donovan should be receiving his 4-channel trainer before the weekend. Hang in there buddy! I placed some pictures in a gallery called “RC Flying at Grove St Park 11/11/2009”.
Fettah
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CommentsPosted on 11/1/2009 9:32:10 PMWhoa. Where to start? I don't think I've ever flown as intensely, for so many hours as I did today. And with such fine company... The details get a bit blurry... here's what I remember.
The prior day as you may recall had been very windy and eventually quite wet. A few of us flew, but still had a serious jones for more. I think we were all pumped to get as much airtime as possible on Sunday. The weather mostly cooperated. It was a great day to be outdoors.
I arrived at Mitre around ten or so, and had the place to myself. There was still some wind kicking. Within a minute or two I had whacked one of my
Depron foam planes, but so what, there were plenty more planes in the car. (And I remembered the CA this time...)
Billy arrived not too long afterwards, and tore up the sky with his
3D SuperCub/Apprentice hybrid. I think maybe
Alex was the next to arrive... but hanging back a bit because of the wind.
Chip showed up with
his dad. Dad got flying lessons on the
E-Flite Alpha 450, using a buddy box. I dunno, I always get nervous watching lessons. Billy had to go home to change his underwear.
We took it slow and easy, flew a bit, chatted a bit, waited for next arrivals. Artie next, I think. SA Shaft all fixed up from yesterday's rough landing. Electro Stick at the ready. Eventually
Fettah showed up with Eric -- whom I hadn't met before... and, and then Billy was back. And then the life of the party,
Scott and
Sue and Skylar with their
awesome matching airplane hats. We lined up the whole menagerie of planes and pilots and got some photos in, with Billy snapping pix from the roof of his truck and Fettah capturing it all on video.
Quite amazingly, Chip did
not unveil the latest thing in avionics today, but we should talk about that Nikon camera and zoom lens he was toting.
Sebastian was there, and
Steve Eichel, freshly returned from France, with
his kids and a new Typhoon. (Sorry, I didn't get the kids' names.) Skylar introduced Alex to "Fireballs." Even my lovely wife joined the fun for a little while... on her way to and from the mall. Sebastion flew a T-28, and a heli or two, as I recall, and a
gray EDF F-15 jet.
Fettah and Chip made several attempts to aero-tow Fettah's glider behind Chip's Alpha 450... with moderate success. At least no serious damage. Scott maidened a brand new,
beautiful balsa biplane (Pitts?) in yellow and black. It was a perfect maiden flight... but in typical Scott fashion, he had the thing doing loops within ten seconds of takeoff.
Steve E. had some exciting flying with his new Typhoon. Steve went missing for a bit and returned with a Typhoon retrieved from across the street somewhere... amazingly intact. As I packed up my planes to head home, maybe 3:30 or so, Steve was flying a mellow
Diablo EDF jet.
A whole lot of flying. The
largest assemblage of "Electric Youth" I have witnessed. Very cool thing we've got here, ladies and gents. I had a blast. Thank you all... for a real good time!
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CommentsPosted on 10/31/2009 2:44:39 PM
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Posted on 10/29/2009 11:32:53 AM
I'm planning to take tomorrow (10/30) off from work, and next Friday (11/6) as well. So if anyone's thinking of flying on either of those days, get in touch. 781 275 5967 (hm) or 781 223 1404 (cell.) or email: rafeb AT speakeasy DOT net
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Posted on 10/26/2009 6:01:29 PM
Sunday, although windy, turned out to be a fun flying day. Between the Burlington RC field, the 495th Squadron field and Mitre, it was easily the most I have ever traveled to fly RC planes.
It was also the first time in a while I had a flight incident, and of course I had to do it flying Scott's brand new Tri (or as I was corrected by Skylar, QUAD) wing plane! The flight started off hairy, with almost full left aileron trim needed to keep the plane level. And even with what looked like 4 ounces of lead weight on the front, it still needed about 8 clicks of down elevator to keep it from violently pitching nose up. But once it was all sorted out, it turned into a real screamer. I'd say 45mph+. It had a high center of gravity which required constant aileron control input, but not so much that I'd call it squirrely. As I did a low pass fly-by to allow Sue to grab some photos of it, I over banked the turn back around and instead of doing a 180, I did more of a 270, pointing the nose of the airplane right toward where we were standing.
Not a problem, it was still some 25 meters away or so. I did a gradual right hand turn and followed the plane with my eyes until I realized I had done something stupid...I flew the plane right into the sun! :(. I kept the power on, took my right hand off the control, save for a little up elevator, hoping to see the plane pull out of the shining sun, however, when it reappeared from the glare, it was pointing straight down at the ground, at about 10 meters and spiraling.
Having seen that posture before, I knew gravity had won the battle and just cut power, figuring if nothing else, Scott wouldn’t need a new propeller. No dice. It went nose in. Hard. Broken prop, broken motor mount. 2 of the 2 top wing stabilizers broke off. One of the aileron control surfaces cracked.
And oh, some very damaged ego.
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